This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
The use of multiple wavelengths of laser light to produce a desired color of output light is known. The use of lasers for illumination is attractive for a variety of reasons. They produce significantly less heat than traditional incandescent light sources, they allow an illuminator to emit significantly more lumens of light than is typical in an ophthalmic illuminator, and their power/intensity level are easily and precisely controllable.
One problem with such a multiple wavelength laser illuminator, or with any illuminator, is the simultaneous use of a treatment laser. The problem arises because along with the treatment laser, there is required the use of a filter eliminating the bandwidth of the treatment laser from the view of the surgeon, to prevent damage to the surgeon's eye. Filtering out this narrow bandwidth of light corresponding to the treatment laser then affects the perceived color of light that is illuminating the tissue being treated because any part of the illuminating light bandwidth corresponding to the treatment laser wavelength will also be blocked by the safety filter of the surgeon's head set or the microscope.
The surgeon often wants to change the illuminating light color to better visualize tissue or to help distinguish one tissue type from another. Traditionally, a white illumination light is filter by physically placing different filter discs in the light path to eliminate certain bandwidths to produce a desired color or tint of light. This requires a complicated and expensive mechanical system that inserts and removes filters from the light path.
Therefore, it is desirable to have an illuminator that can produce a variety of light wavelengths to produce a desired color in an easy, accurate fashion without the need for a mechanical filter system and that will also compensate for the light wavelengths blocked by the treatment laser safety filter.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.